I read this, and just had to shake my head. Did the Argus even try? The Argus Leader shows us once again how much they don’t know about South Dakota politics:
The field of candidates vying for the attorney general’s office is growing ahead of the March deadline to submit candidate petitions.
and..
With his seat set to come open, two have announced they’ll face off in the Republican primary.
and..
The field is expected to grow ahead of the deadline to run in the state’s June 5 partisan primary elections.
Jesus wept, it’s bad enough that the Argus panders as much as they do to South Dakota Democrats, but most of this article is incorrect. Did they bother to ask anyone how this stuff all works?
Error #1 – “The field of candidates vying for the attorney general’s office is growing ahead of the March deadline to submit candidate petitions.”
South Dakota Attorney General candidates for the political parties do not submit petitions. Period. In fact, it’s right there on the Secretary of State’s website:
The following will be nominated at the 2018 state conventions of each political party:
- Lieutenant Governor – 4 year term
- Public Utilities Commissioner – 6 year term
- Attorney General – 4 year term
- Secretary of State – 4 year term
- State Auditor – 4 year term
- State Treasurer – 4 year term
- Commissioner of School and Public Lands – 4 year term
They may want to bookmark the link for future reference. Statewide, in South Dakota, only for US Senate, Congress & Governor do they submit petitions. For the rest of the statewide executive branch elected offices, they’re nominated at convention. It’s been that way for what? 100 years or more?
State Legislators (State Senate, State House), and offices on down then shift back to a petition process.
Error #2 – “With his seat set to come open, two have announced they’ll face off in the Republican primary.” There are 4 candidates, not 2 who have announced they’re running. And they have been for quite a while. Otherwise, it looks pretty silly for John Fitzgerald, Charlie McGuigan, Lance Russell and Jason Ravnsborg to be running around the state talking to all the groups they have been for the last several months. They’ve all announced, but apparently the Argus ignored the memo, since it wasn’t coming from the Democrat State Party Headquarters. Which leads into glaring error 3..
Error #3 – “The field is expected to grow ahead of the deadline to run in the state’s June 5 partisan primary elections.” Well, it’s going to grow from the two listed, as the 4 have been running for a while, but as noted, they don’t have to petition, and they are not winnowed out in the primary election process. There IS no Primary for AG. They are chosen at the political party conventions AFTER the primary.
It’s pretty bad when the State’s largest newspaper can’t get basic facts about state elections correct. Even worse when it’s gone through a writer and an editor… and they still screw it up.
Update… They have an updated story now, with the following mea culpa:
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of candidates running for the office of attorney general and mischaracterized the nomination process.
Maybe Dana Ferguson should spend time learning about South Dakota politics instead of blowing up Facebook posts.
Can we finally put the matter to bed?
The Argus knows nothing of which they speak. You notice how she had to repeatedly mention the selection is partisan? You’d almost think this imbecile thinks we’d be better served with non-partisan elections. You think she just listens to the South Dakota Democrat Party talking points?
Sometimes you just can’t this stuff up.
Hahahahaha
Link is down. Maybe they pulled it already.
Dana was at the Loudon speech Monday, but her reporting had some factual errors. For example, the Minnehaha Republicans didn’t organize the event, we along with 3 other groups sponsored it. She also interviewed or asked quotes from people who were not there and didn’t hear Loudon’s remarks.
I see Sen. Stace Nelson has come out praising Lance Russell and John Fitzgerald.
That is enough to eliminate those 2 for me.
So for me the paper is right it is a two man race.
Thank you Jason, your opinion means very little
Thanks, Kelly, your opinion means very little to me.
That’s not all that was wrong with the article before it was pulled. They said the seat was open because Marty Jackley announced he was running for governor. No. It was open because Marty Jackley is term limited. Clueless.
(Darn it! I missed that error! Thanks! – PP)
How many do they have running for SOS, Treasurer and Auditor?
They probably think Brunner is going to have a primary.
There should be two for every race. Minimum.
I agree, I am surprised that the Secretary of State race has not drawn more attention.
I thought there was mention of a possible challenger to Steve Barnett.
Who?
The funny thing is, Dana Ferguson was at the Lincoln County LDD on Friday and heard ALL FOUR Attorney General candidates speak…
The Argus is really getting their money’s worth when they send a reporter to an event and they don’t pay attention to basic facts.
Sounds like she’ll be a perfect fit with CNN or the HuffPo since she is incompetent. Maybe she needs to go back to journalism school-if she ever went.
That young Ms. Fergeson is the least accurate reporter I’ve ever read. Almost every article she types out or twitters or facebooks out has errors. I expect she facebooks, but I don’t know. She has no editors, it appears, and the Argus has no fact checkers.
Given the fact that the Dems have not nominated an AG candidate since 2002, I believe, it is fair to say that the Republican AG nominee is not nominated, rather he or she is elected at the GOP convention…. 😉 #HowSad #ToBadSomeLawyersAreAfraidofTheRepublicanEstablishment
Whose fault is that?
I think my second hashtag answers that question….
The devil sang.
Mr. PP has made the Argus slap up Ms. Fergeson’s article with:
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of candidates running for the office of attorney general and mischaracterized (sic) the nomination process.
Even with the correction the story still says there is a March deadline. In fact, it is in the first paragraph, right after the “correction” disclaimer:
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of candidates running for the office of attorney general and mischaracterized the nomination process.
The field of candidates vying for the attorney general’s office is growing ahead of the March deadline to submit candidate petitions.
Also, she says “Attorney General Marty Jackley plans to leave the position as he runs for governor” as if he had a choice. The way she wrote that makes it seem like she doesn’t realize he is term-limited.
I simply assume the entire staff at the Argus is ignorant of the process.
Why should she be an exception.
The Argus Leader under the leadership of Cory Myers has become a liberal dung heap. Crappy reporting that doesn’t even try to hide their leftist bias- it’s time to push for a law that takes away their government-funded welfare that requires public notices be printed.
Who reads newspapers anymore?
Public notices should be put where the public will notice… Facebook, blogs and twitter.